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Welcome to the OMV group first quarter 2024 results conference call and webcast. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to refer you to the disclaimer, which includes our position on the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on beliefs, estimates, and assumptions currently held by an information currently available to OMV. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that will or may occur in the future and are outside the control of OMV. Therefore, recipients are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. OMV disclaims any obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, revised assumptions and expectations, and future development and events. This presentation does not contain any recommendation or invitation to buy or sell securities in OMV. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Florian Greger, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Greger.

Yeah, thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to OMV's earnings call for the first quarter 2024. With me on the call are OMV's CEO, Alfred Stern, and our CFO, Reinhard Florey. As always, Alfred will walk you through the highlights of the quarter and will discuss OMV's financial performance. Following his presentation, the two gentlemen are available to answer your question. And without any further ado, I'll hand it over to Alfred.

Thank you, Florian. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and thank you for joining us. Our business continues to perform well in the first quarter of 2024. We have made a robust start into the year. Our clean CCS operating result was 1.5 billion euros and our operating cash flow stood at 1.8 billion euros, far exceeding the level of the previous quarter. Let me speak briefly about the market environment, which showed a mixed picture in the first quarter. Print crude oil prices remained broadly unchanged compared to the previous quarter, averaging $83 per barrel. A bullish sentiment on revised IEA demand expectations, the continuation of OPEC Plus production cuts, And the geopolitical risk premium amid the ongoing attacks in the Red Sea supported this. European gas prices dropped by around 30% compared to the previous quarter and by around 50% compared to the prior year quarter on the back of a warmer than expected winter in Europe, leading to reduced demand and high storage levels. At around $11 per barrel, the European refinery indicator margin remained very strong, slightly above the previous quarter, but 27% lower year on year. Gasoline crack spreads rose versus the previous quarter, driven by tighter supplies in the U.S. due to unplanned production outages amid the severe cold spell in the Gulf at the beginning of this year. Middle distillate crack spreads remained elevated, yet still lower compared to the previous quarter due to higher supply availability, unusually high temperatures, and weak European economic activity. Naphtha crack spreads increased supported by supply and logistics disruptions. European steam cracker run rates improved, driven by lower chemical imports into the region as logistics became more complicated amid Red Sea attacks. In the second half of the quarter, gasoline blending demand for NAFTA started improving, supporting crack spreads further. The olefin indicator margins in Europe declined compared to the previous quarter and prior year quarter as a result of overall weak underlying demand. Although demand improved compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, prices could not compensate for changes in feedstock prices resulting in weaker indicator margins. Polyolefin indicator margins rose compared to the previous quarter, supported by concerns about the security of supply, reduced imports into Europe from Asia and Middle East due to the Red Sea bottleneck and into North America following outages after the winter freeze, coupled with low inventory levels led to a rise in orders from European producers. Compared to the prior year quarter, The polyethylene indicator margin was up 16%, while the polypropylene indicator margin was similar. At around 1.5 billion euros, the clean CCS operating result improved by around 4% compared with the previous quarter, but was below the exceptional level of the prior year quarter. Our cash flow from operating activities increased compared with the fourth quarter of 2023 by almost 70%, but stood around 30% below the prior year quarter when it benefited from exceptionally high gas prices. Looking at operations, polyolefin sales volumes were slightly higher year on year, while fuel sales volumes declined slightly. The utilization rate of our refineries was at 85% due to short outages and reduced middle distillate demand. The utilization rate of the steam crackers was at 87% above the average European rates. Oil and gas production was 6% lower year on year, primarily due to lower volumes in New Zealand, Romania, and Norway. OMV was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the sixth consecutive year. The TJSI World represents the top 10% of the largest 2,500 companies in the S&P Global Broad Market Index. Our latest rating reconfirms that we are on the right trajectory with our sustainability agenda. We continued to execute our strategy and made further progress with the transformation of our company. We closed the acquisition of Integra Plastics, a Bulgarian advanced mechanical recycling company which adds more than 20,000 tons of recycling capacity per year. We also announced an investment in the Olefins units. in Finland, which will enable an increased share of renewable and recycled raw materials in our base chemicals production. We also signed a long-term supply agreement with DOMRA. OMV will receive feedstock for its re-oil plants in Austria, while Borealis will process volumes at its mechanical recycling operations in Europe. OMV Petrom signed financing contracts with the Romanian Ministry of Energy for the construction of two production facilities for green hydrogen. Total investment will be approximately 140 million euros with the funding of up to 50 million euros. The project consists of building two water electrolysis plants with a total capacity of 55 megawatts. at the Petrobras refinery. The entire production process will be powered by renewable energy, therefore carbon-free, allowing the hydrogen obtained to be classified as green hydrogen. Furthermore, we acquired 30 additional retail sites in Austria and Slovakia to strengthen our integrated supply chain around our refineries. The new sites will also act as a catalyst for our mobility transformation strategy, which aims to help our customers reduce emissions through our second-generation biofuels offering and ultra-fast charging e-mobility rollout. Last but not least, I'm very happy to announce that OMV has joined the oil and gas methane partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme. OMV takes the topic of mitigating methane emissions very seriously, and this program will strengthen our efforts to ensure accurate measurement and transparent reporting. Let's turn now to the financial performance in the first quarter of 2024. Our clean CCS operating result was slightly higher than the previous quarter. However, compared to the strong prior year quarter, which was supported by very high gas prices and refining margins, the results decreased by around 600 million euros. The performance of the energy segment dropped by around 430 million euros, and fuels and feedstock decreased by around 280 million euros. The chemicals and materials result improved by 35 million euros. The CleanCCS tax rate was stable at 39%. The CleanCCS net income attributable to stockholders rose sequentially by around 5% to 696 million euros, while it declined by 32% compared with a strong prior year quarter. CleanCCS earnings per share amounted to 2 euros and 13 cents. Let me now come to the performance of our business segments. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, the clean operating result of chemicals and materials rose by 35 million euros. This was mainly driven by positive inventory effects on the back of increasing prices during the quarter and a higher result from Porouge. The nitro business, which we divested in July last year, contributed 7 million euros in the first quarter of 2023. The ethylene indicator margin declined by 2%, and the propylene indicator margin went down by 9%, impacted by ample supply, resulting from a high refinery throughput in Europe. The polyethylene indicator margin increased by 16%, while the polypropylene indicator margin was flat. As a consequence, we recorded negative market effects of 9 million euros in our European olefin and polyolefin businesses compared to the first quarter of 2023. We recognized positive inventory effects of around 40 million euros in the first quarter, primarily due to increasing feedstock prices. However, The improvement versus the first quarter of 2023 amounted to around 60 million euros as inventory effects were negative at that time. Looking at operational performance, the olefin contribution of the OMV crackers decreased slightly due to weaker indicator margins, partially offset by higher benzene margins. The contribution of the Borealis olefin business increased due to positive inventory valuation effects and higher production volumes as the Carlo BDH plant had a planned turnaround in the first quarter of 2023. The utilization rate of our steam crackers decreased mainly due to brief stoppages and minor operational issues. The feedstock flexibility of our crackers in the Nordic was once again advantageous. Shifting to lighter feedstocks led to a benefit of around 40 million euros in the first quarter of this year. The polyolefin business performance declined slightly, impacted by a less favorable product mix and higher fixed costs due to inflation, partially offset by positive inventory valuation effects. The polyolefin sales volumes increased slightly compared to the first quarter of 2023. While sales volumes in some market segments such as consumer products, mobility, and healthcare showed an improvement, we have seen a volume decrease in the energy segment. The contribution of the JVs increased from 1 to 22 million euros, thanks to improved performance at Port Rouge, which was primarily due to increased sales volumes. In the first quarter of 2023, there was a planned turnaround at Port Rouge II, which impacted polyethylene sales volumes. In turn, in the first quarter of this year, Polypropylene sales volumes declined due to reduced propylene supply from APNOC refining as a result of a turnaround at the RFCC unit, limiting production at Boruche. Polyolefin pricing in Asia remained weak. At BayStar, we have been able to substantially improve the operational performance. The cracker is now running stable at the high utilization and we made significant progress in the ramp up of the new polyethylene unit Bay 3. The utilization rate of the ethane cracker improved. However, the average utilization in the quarter was still low due to the outage in the first half of the quarter caused by the winter freeze. Polyethylene volumes could also be slightly increased. However, due to the outage in the first half of the quarter, the PayStar results showed only a slight increase compared to the first quarter of last year. In addition, the startup of the PayFree unit led to higher depreciation and interest expenses, which we started to record in the first quarter of this year. The clean CCS operating result declined by 48% to €303 million compared with the very strong prior year quarter driven by lower refining indicator margin and utilization rate in the fuels and feedstock segment. The retail and commercial business showed a good performance but decreased versus the strong first quarter of last year. At around $11 per barrel, the refining indicator margin was still very strong, but lower than the strong level of the prior year quarter when it averaged almost $15 per barrel. Total sales volumes decreased slightly, mainly due to the divestment of the Slovenian retail business and slightly lower commercial volumes. Retail performed well, however, it declined compared with a strong prior year quarter. The main reasons for this were lower fuel unit margins, which benefited last year from the removal of price caps in Hungary at the end of 2022, and the missing contribution from the divested Slovenian retail stations. The non-fuel business performed well and delivered a higher contribution. The performance of the commercial business declined, mostly due to decreased margins as a result of lower-term prices. The contribution from APNOC refining and trading decreased significantly to 48 million euros due to a lower utilization rate following a planned turnaround at the RFCC unit and the weaker market environment. The clean operating result of the energy segment decreased by 29% to 1 billion and 50 million euros from the strong prior year level, primarily due to substantially lower gas prices, decreased sales volumes, and a reduced contribution from gas marketing and power. OMVs realized oil price increased by 2%, the same as the print price. The European gas hub prices dropped sharply by almost 50%, while OMVs realized gas price declined less than the hub prices by 38%. As a result, we recorded negative market effects of 238 million euros versus the prior year quarter. Compared with the first quarter of 2023, production volumes decreased by 24 to 350,000 PoE per day. The main reasons were lower production in New Zealand, natural decline in Norway and Romania, as well as force majeure in Libya in January this year. Production increased in the UAE following revised OPEC quota restrictions. The production cost rose slightly to $9.6 per barrel, mainly because of lower production, partially offset by cost improvement measures. Sales volumes decreased by 38,000 BOE per day, thus to a greater extent than the production decline, as they were additionally impacted by underliftings in Libya. At almost 300 million euros, the result of gas marketing and power was again very strong, but declined compared to the excellent first quarter of the previous year, mainly attributable to a lower contribution from Romania. The gas east result in the first quarter of 2023 was positively impacted by exceptional gas storage withdrawals and margins, which did not materialize again this quarter. gas marketing west remained very strong. While the supply result was significantly higher than in the first quarter of 2023, when we were still experiencing Russian supply curtailments, the realized storage margins fell from the exceptional level of the first quarter of 2023. Turning to cash flow. At 1.9 billion euros, the cash flow from operating activities excluding net working capital effects in the first quarter of 2024 almost reached the higher level of the prior year quarter. The impact of lower gas prices was partly compensated for by lower income tax payments. Net working capital effects generated a small cash outflow of 36 million euros in the quarter, while in the first quarter of 2023, we had a significant cash inflow of 684 million euros. We received dividends from Adnok Refining and Trading in the amount of 216 million euros in the first quarter of 2024. The organic cash flow from investing activities was around 800 million euros. Besides ordinary ongoing business investments, this included the BDH plant in Belgium, the sorting facility in Germany, the re-oil and coprocessing plants in Austria, and the aromatic unit in Petrobras. As a result, The organic free cash flow before dividends for the first quarter of 2024 came in at around 1 billion euros. Our balance sheet remained very strong. Net debt at the end of March amounted to 1.2 billion euros, a reduction of around 900 million euros compared with the end of last year. our leverage ratio decreased further to 4%. OMV had a cash position of 7.9 billion euros and 5.3 billion euros in undrawn committed credit facilities at the end of March 2024. Let me conclude with the outlook for this year. We have increased our expectation for the print price to an average of around $85 per barrel for 2024. Due to warmer weather than expected in winter and high inventories, we have adjusted the forecast for the European gas price to slightly below 30 euros per megawatt hour. The OMV average realized gas price is now expected to be between 20 and 25 euros per megawatt hour. In chemicals and materials, we have seen a mixed picture in the first quarter of this year. In olefins, higher NAFTA costs could not be fully passed on to the market, impacting margins which were slightly below our full-year guidance. In April, we were able to raise prices by around 40 euros per ton, while NAFTA prices fell slightly, leading to improved margins. Our four-year guidance for olefin indicator margins remains unchanged at €490 per tonne for ethylene and €370 per tonne for propylene. In polyolefins, the start to the year was better than expected. We were able to increase margins because of less imports into Europe and due to concerns around the security of supply. In March, we recorded the highest values for more than a year, with polyethylene indicator margins of around €460 per ton and polypropylene indicator margins of around €440 per ton. In April, we were able to further increase polyolefin prices, but did not fully capture the higher olefin costs. We believe that demand in Europe has not fundamentally improved and we are wary that supply chain disruptions helped European producers in the last couple of months. The market environment remains volatile and will continue to be impacted by imports. Our visibility into the second half year is limited, however, Given the better first quarter and still disruptions to global supply chains, we are upgrading our full-year guidance for indicator margins to 350 to 400 euros per ton for both polyethylene and for polypropylene. The Borealis polyolefin sales volumes, excluding JVs, are unchanged at 3.9 million tons. The Bay 3 polyethylene plant in the U.S., reached commercial production in the first quarter and is now ramping up. The cracker in Port Arthur restarted operations in the second half of February and is now running stable with a high utilization rate. There are no changes to the outlook for fuels and feedstocks. In energy, we are reconfirming the full year production guidance. In the second quarter, we will have planned maintenance in Norway. Please keep in mind that we had significantly lower oil sales in the first quarter due to underliftings in Libya. Consequently, as the cargoes will be sold this year, we will benefit from additional liftings in quarters to come. The divestment in Malaysia is progressing well, and we expect closing mid of this year. But of course, this is subject to government and regulatory approvals. With regards to cash flows, in April we received dividends from Boruch as the second payment for the fiscal year 2023, which amounted to around 220 million euros. We would like to remind you that in the second quarter we will be paying the solidarity contribution in Romania for the full year 2023, amounting to around 250 million euros. In addition, according to the regular Norwegian payment schedule, in the second quarter, we are bound to pay two tax installments. The clean tax rate for the full year is expected to be around 49, excuse me, is expected to be around 45%. Before we come to your questions, I would like to invite you all to our Capital Markets Day on June 13th in London. You will have the opportunity to meet the entire executive board in person, as all of us will be attending. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible face-to-face. And now thank you for your attention. Reinhard and I will now be happy to take your questions.